In Memory of W.B. Yeats

In Memory of W.B. Yeats is a peom written by W.H. Auden.  The poem seems to be a contradiction when you first read it.  It says that poetry can do nothing and later it says it can, which seems a little strange considering that we are reading a poem and it is written by a poet.  So either the writer really hates his job or he has some other meaning behind this, considering Auden wrote a lot of poetry I'm going with another meaning.  I think what he is really saying is that poetry by itself is just words and words can do nothing unless they are read by someone.  People are the key to the problem peotry is there to state the ideas and opinions, but it takes people to make any sort of change.  If no one reads it or acts upon it, the the author is write poetry can do nothing but people can do amazing things with words.